Archive for the ‘Gambling’ Category

A big damn smile may have just crossed Paul Krugman’s fuzzy face. After weeks of lamenting the poor decisions of the Obama Treasury Department, new information from the New York Times suggests that the money used to shore up the banking giants during the bailout may soon be converted to common stocks.

Fuzzy Wuzzy.

The effect of such an action is consequential for anyone tired of giving free public money to private banks. Essentially, this course will nationalize several of the banks because the United States government (taxpayers) will become the majority shareholder. Apparently, the U.S. government has already arranged this type of relationship with Citibank.

Before this decision was made, a great number of tax dollars were given to the troubled banks without any strings attached. Instead of buying up all the troubled assets (securities that can be difficult to value) of each bank, we would get common stock in the company.

This could be good news and could be bad. If the stock price absolutely tanks (which the government could actually be anticipating), then the tax payers could end up suffering. However, as a majority shareholder, the government will be on the board of directors for the company and will be able to influence decisions that are made regarding our investments. We already know that the troubled assets are next to worthless, so if we can get a decent deal with the stock conversion plan, we may end up getting a lot of our money back.

When the credit lines open up again, we can expect the United States government to sell taxpayer shares in each bank. Hell, we could even make money on this.

Expect this to be a rallying cry for the “Obama = Socialist” crowd. But it’s a hell of a lot better than handing your federal taxes to the nearest AIG executive and expecting nothing in return.

Fuck you Jim Cramer. A blip in the stock market just means that we may have found a way out of this clusterfuck. Did we close down the derivatives market? Surely we at least made subprime lending illegal, right? Did we assign value to the toxic assets? How about forbid 30 to 1 leverage? Or criminalize naked default swaps? No? We haven’t? Then shut the fuck up.

The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration launched a new website Monday aimed at helping people get through the current economic crisis without putting a bullet in their head.

Matthew Perry?

The guide provides information about how to effectively manage stress as well as how to spot signs of alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression. The site also contains links for troubled homeowners that may help to alleviate some of their stress.

It may not look pretty right now, but the United States will get through this recession. Here is a tip: You can actually make money off of this recession if you do a little research. If you are particularly stressed about finances, talk to some of your friends and try to get it on the toxic assets that the government will be selling. They are going to be backed 97% by the FDIC.

The state of Delaware is examining creative means to make up for its $606 million budget deficit next year. Governor Jack Markell has developed a wholly unoriginal idea: sports betting. Now they’re speaking my language.

Fight!

Markell proposed early this month that the state investigate whether legalizing sports betting could make up for the budget shortfall. The NCAA immediately pounced, saying that Delaware would face repercussions if it did so, threatening punitive damages for state schools and withdrawal from consideration to host NCAA events.

But the debate continued and the sports world has sent out the big guns. Lobbyists from the NFL conflated in Delaware in the past few days to urge lawmakers not to consider voting for the bill. The NFL is also considering bringing football players to the state to fight it.

Markell fired back at the NFL, saying that they promote gambling by providing their audiences with analysts that predict the final score of every game before it is played. “The notion that the NFL has aggressively and actively fought against betting on its games is belied by the very programming the NFL indirectly endorses and from which it handsomely profits.”

Only two states currently allow sports betting to take place, Nevada and Montana.

What could the NFL’s angle be in this position? Is it that they are afraid their fans will think it undermines the legitimacy of the game? There are a thousand bookies in Vegas that are willing to accept any wager a citizen from Delaware has on the outcome of a game. By legalizing betting inside the state, Delaware would retain that money instead of sending it to the desert.